I haven't done an official health update since starting this blog, and I figured it is probably time. I like blogging about things other than my health. It makes me feel normal for a few minutes. :) But if this blog is to be about a disabled wife and mom, it has to include health updates too.
The biggest battle lately has been gastroparesis. My gastroparesis has been getting worse over the past three weeks, but I didn't think much of it until this past weekend when it really flared up. For the weekend I had to be on a mostly liquid diet, and my stomach still had a hard time emptying. It has been hard to get enough calories and nutrients. I'm praying that this flare doesn't last long.
Meanwhile, I'm eating pudding, soup, saltine crackers, and drinking a lot of Ensure, juice, Gatorade, and soda. I'm staying away from water as much as I can right now. Normally that's not something I would do, but I need any calories I can get. Water fills me up, but doesn't give calories, so I've replaced my normal water bottle with glasses of ginger ale and root beer.
Mornings are harder than they used to be. It is so hard to get my body moving in the morning. Waking up and getting out of bed can take an hour or more, and it feels like a fight the whole time. Once I'm up and out of bed, it can still take an hour for my brain to "wake up."
As always, I have to rest a lot throughout the day, and I have to spend most of my time lying down. This can be discouraging because I have so much on my to do list: thank yous to write, taxes, letters, coupon clipping, filing, medical journaling, appointment scheduling, and more that I'm forgetting. I feel so unproductive. I can usually only accomplish one small task per day, and some days not even that. I'm very careful about pacing myself. I can't do too much or I'll pay for it later (with even more fatigue, weakness, dizziness, etc). I have to push myself just enough, though, so that I don't lose even more muscle. It's a delicate balance!
So that's a bit of an update for those of you who are wondering. Enough about me. How are you doing? :)
